Gerry Carroll
West Belfast · People Before Profit Alliance · Northern Ireland
“Yesterday morning, as others did, I stood alongside our resident doctors as they commenced a 24-hour period of industrial action. We often praise our healthcare workers in the House and more generally, saying things such as that they are invaluable and that we wish them well.”
“If we have learnt anything from the political events of the past week, it is that powerful people — powerful men, in particular — and institutions should always be held to maximum account when it comes to abuse, neglect and victims, and that victims and survivors should be believed and supported on every occasion.”
“Agency spend has, again, gone through the roof and is sky-high; locum spend has gone up and continues to go up — it has gone up by in the region of £0·5 billion over the past few years; and, almost every single year out of the past five to 10 years, hundreds of millions of pounds of public money have been pumped into the for-profit privat…”
“With bills increasing month-on-month and year-on-year, that is true, and those workers need a proper settlement that meets their needs and the ever-increasing cost of living. One striking doctor put it to me starkly yesterday. They said that they left Scotland and took a more senior position in the health sector in Belfast.”
“I commend Stephen and his colleagues in the Bill Office and the Executive Office officials, who worked closely with me to try to support, amend or help along my amendments — whatever way you want to look at it. I also want to commend the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone who spoke out during the last few stages.”
“I commend people for speaking out on the issue, especially Sharon Burke. I think that she might be in the Gallery. She has been emailing Members on that issue.”
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“<BR /> <BR />I commend those families that have been speaking out and holding people together through mental ill health and suicide crises. I thank all the campaigning groups that have been mentioned, but also others that have not but do that important work. Also, I want to mention West Wellbeing centre in my constituency, which does lifesaving and important work, including with members of my family, but which, despite a motion being passed in Belfast City Council a few months ago, is still waiting on the tens of thousands of pounds coming through from the council to provide extra counselling sessions and services. I call on those parties on Belfast City Council currently blocking that motion and money to get their act together and let the money be released.”
“Having a no-silo mentality is always mentioned in Stormont but that is never more true than when talking about mental health. <BR /> <BR />Along with others, I recently met New Script for Mental Health, which is running a fantastic campaign. It is a family of campaigners and activists. I urge the Minister and his officials to meet the group, if they have not already done so. The main point taken from meeting them was that we are likely overprescribing antidepressants. No doubt, many people do need those prescriptions, but is society accepting the mass prescribing of antidepressants because it is cheaper than providing counselling, talking therapies and other labour-intensive but life-saving services? I would guess yes.”
“There are questions about that policy and whether it is doing anything good — it is not — for mental ill health. The decision by the Department for Communities and the Executive to cut the winter fuel payment for 250,000 pensioners is, I am sure, doing wonders for their mental health. A welfare system that dehumanises and literally punishes people in a Dickensian manner leads directly to more poverty and poor mental health. <BR /> <BR />All those issues and more are connected. We need to call out what the Executive have not done and have not committed to around mental health but also those economic and political decisions made by them that have battered people and led to worse mental health. People are products of their environment, they are shaped by it, and that is never more true than when talking about mental health.”
“We also have to ask whether decisions made by the Minister of Health and others in the Executive will increase anxiety and mental ill health, and possibly lead to worse. The previous Health Minister's decision to ban puberty blockers has already led to fear and anxiety shooting through the roof amongst our trans and non-binary community, which is a really marginalised and isolated community.”
“The system is completely broken and completely underfunded. The need is not reflected in the Budget allocations, and that situation needs to be addressed urgently. <BR /> <BR />We also have to ask — I am glad that the Minister is here — whether the Protect Life 2 strategy is ambitious enough and, more to the point, whether it has worked. Given the tragic suicide figures, I suggest that it has not. I have submitted some questions for written answer to tease out some information about that. We need to publish the review, which should happen ASAP. We had a rapid review, which was agreed in December 2023, but, like most things in this place, it is moving at a snail's pace and now needs to be published ASAP. <BR /> <BR />There are therefore massive questions about what the Department is doing around preventative mental health measures.”
“It is important that the Assembly and the Executive get to grips with the mental ill health epidemic that all our communities are facing but that is, obviously and always, more acutely felt by working-class and deprived communities, as has been said. The rich can avoid the daily grind and go on relaxation retreats when they want to, but everyone else has to focus on paying skyrocketing rents, paying for unaffordable childcare and being paid historically low wages and, of course, on dealing with depression, anxiety and suicide. As we have heard, those rates, tragically, are three times higher in more deprived areas. <BR /> <BR />I know that mental health workers, counsellors and other people in the sector are doing really important and, in many cases, literally life-saving work, but they are trying to push a boulder up a mountain.”
“Politics in Action, the Northern Ireland Youth Forum and the National Union of Students - Union of Students in Ireland (NUS-USI) — a former employer — support the motion, and my message to those young people is to keep up the fight and keep campaigning. Like those people in the past who were denied the right to vote, I think that you can get the right to vote as well.”
“The civil rights movement here, as has been suggested, and in the US had to fight to get votes for people who were discriminated against and were not allowed to vote. Young people should not be forced to fight in the same way, but the same principle applies. Added to the votes at 16 motion and the point about the Secretary of State, the fact that migrants, asylum seekers and refugees cannot vote in our society but live here and contribute here is also a disgrace, and I call on the Secretary of State to make legislation quickly to resolve that matter as well. <BR /> <BR />I pay tribute to everybody who has campaigned to highlight the worthy Votes at 16 cause.”
“<BR /> <BR />Despite the fears of conservatives here and in Britain, not everyone aged 16, 17 and 18 is a radical socialist — yet — but they certainly tend to have better positions on political questions than parties here and those that have been in government in Westminster, including on climate change and Palestine. The list goes on. Therefore, they absolutely should be allowed to vote. <BR /> <BR />I will paraphrase Frederick Douglass: power concedes nothing without a fight. Working-class people had to fight for the right to vote through a Chartist movement in Britain and other campaigns across the world. The suffragette movement had to fight to get votes for women, and that was a fight and a struggle.”
“I remember, during the campaign around the Scottish independence referendum, that some of the best voices — generally for independence — in the debate were young people who were passionate and articulate, so I do not buy the idea that young people are not interested, are not political or are too stupid or naive, as some people suggest. <BR /> <BR />It is no surprise that the DUP does not want the voting age to be lowered, because that party does not want a greater cohort of people to cast their verdict on its disastrous policies, its support for the Tories, its support for banning puberty blockers, its objections to relationships and sexuality education (RSE) and its attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community and migrants — the list goes on and on and on.”
“Disgracefully, EMA has not been increased in 20 years; I still cannot over that mental fact. Young people are political, and the current barrier should be lifted so that young people are allowed to vote. <BR /> <BR />It is worth mentioning that social inequality obviously affects voter turnout, and those in deprived communities, generally speaking, are less likely to vote. That is understandable when you see what Governments tend to prioritise — what they do and do not do. However, that is not true for the 16- and 17-year-olds who voted in the 2021 Scottish local elections, where class, which is a determining factor for most things in life, was not a factor for those under the age of 18 who voted. That only became a factor after the age of 18 and among people in their 20s.”
“Currently, young people's needs and interests are being left out of most political decisions made here, and we have a general problem, right across our society, with most categories and communities of people switching off from official politics and, thus, from voting. In many ways, when you hear some speeches and read some legislation and see how it is worded and purposefully made complex, that is no surprise. <BR /> <BR />However, it is worth saying that politics is not just about what happens in this place or Westminster. Politics is all around us, and young people are engaged in it every single day. They are involved in campaigns every single day. Look at the campaigns for Palestine. Young people have dominated those on our streets across these islands. They protested against education maintenance allowance (EMA) cuts.”
“It is even worse when you see what meagre tax increases on the rich would bring in. I raised that in the Finance Committee in the past two weeks, and it is worth repeating on the Floor. A 1% tax increase on the wealthiest 1% would bring in £25 billion of extra funding for public services, and the black hole would be completely gone. The €13 billion that Apple owed in taxes would transform public services right across the island. Where is the Executive's strategy to tackle those issues, to highlight them and to fight them? They do not have any plan to do so. It cannot be business as usual while corporate profits are out of control. The Budget Bill is definitely business as usual, and, for that reason, I will vote against it.”
“I will speak briefly about the Budget Bill. It is clear that this Budget Bill, alongside the wider process of Budgets, does not meet the desires and needs of working-class communities across this society. The housing crisis is completely out of control and there is no appropriate funding allocated to tackle that problem in this Budget Bill. Health is continually underfunded, with a rocketing crisis ripping through all of society. There is no appropriate funding for Health. All the while, people cling to the Bengoa scheme, which is designed to cut, dice and reduce our important health service. No thank you. Lough Neagh continues to be strangled and to die, but there is no appropriate funding in this Budget Bill for it. <BR /> <BR />That just scratches the surface of what this Bill will not do.”
“I declare an interest as a member of Unite the union. I reiterate the need to protect jobs at the site. Minister, can you expand on any conversations with the workers that have taken place to try to ensure that jobs at the site are not reliant on contracts from the MOD or the British Government but are connected to industries that enhance life, provide clean air and green jobs? To me and many others that is fundamental to keeping jobs and ensuring a safe and sustainable future for the site. Will you expand on that earlier point, please?”
“Will the Minister agree that economic class rather than religion is the determining factor in whether young people are regarded as a failure? The segregated education system has not helped either. Budget after budget after budget, cuts have meant that working-class people of all stripes have not had the education system that they deserve, despite the best efforts of people working in education.”
“I thank the Member for her intervention, but it does not change my substantive point that the proposed change is restrictive and prevents Members from introducing legislation for a year, when Stormont returns and if they are re-elected, which is up to the electorate. <BR /> <BR />The proposed change is restrictive, and Members, especially those who are supposed to be in opposition, should oppose it.”
“The Member should do a bit more opposing. He is meant to be the leader of the Opposition. He is essentially saying to any of his party's Members who come to him in June 2026 that there is no chance of a new private Member's Bill. If something changes in society or in the real world, which happens regularly, voting for this change to Standing Orders means that his Members will have to wait at least another year until such a Bill can be debated in the House.”
“Had this amendment been in place then, we would not have had any climate change legislation. We would not have had my trade union Bill, and we would not have had period poverty legislation or the Private Tenancies Bill. The list goes on and on. I implore people —.”
“Let us think about it. We could have the absurd situation in which something new occurs or there is a groundswell for movement on a particular issue in June 2026, yet no private Member will be able to introduce legislation or act on the issue until June 2027, if they are re-elected. That is what the proposal effectively does. As I said, it limits the voices of smaller parties, independent Members and parties outside the Executive. It is really damaging to democracy, which is what this Building should be about, to the people outside and to the parties outside the Executive. It is an attempt to stifle democracy. <BR /> <BR />Think about the legislation that came through in the last few months of the previous mandate. Obviously, not all of it was perfect, and we did not agree fully with all aspects of it.”
“I oppose this change to Standing Orders. It is already difficult for smaller parties or independent voices to get a private Member's Bill completed or passed in the House. The proposal makes it more difficult for those to complete the process. Obviously, it limits the time during which people can introduce them.”
“, particularly in working-class communities, many people in my constituency and beyond will be denied the undeniable benefits of immersive learning that a Gaeltacht course and visit provide.”
“Thank you, Minister. Was there any discussion about expanding the Gaeltacht bursary scheme, especially given the budget surplus in the South and the Apple billions that are likely to come through? It is an important scheme, but I am concerned that, with the rapid increase in the number of Gaeilgeoirí”
“Our job in Ireland is to say that loud and clear and to expose the true nature of the apartheid state and its war machine. My message to the activists is this: keep being active, keep marching and keep protesting until Palestine is free.”
“I commend the activists in the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Gaels Against Genocide and every individual and organisation who came out to take a stand against the company. There must not and cannot be business as usual for companies that profit while they are connected to the Israeli war machine, with its ongoing killing and slaughter. <BR /> <BR />More important than ever, we need to keep up our activism as we approach a year of the genocide and scholasticide. Despite the brutality of the war launched by Israel and, as reported by 'The Lancet', the estimated 186,000 people killed, Palestinians will not disappear. The Zionist project is fracturing as the myth of Israel being a liberal democracy has been exposed as a lie in front of the whole world. <BR /> <BR />UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese rightly said:”
“I commend the recent work of pro-Palestine activists across the country who have taken action to say that we should not normalise apartheid and genocide. In recent days, that action was targeted on the US company Red Hat, which has strong connections with the Israeli military and the Israeli occupation. Despite all the attempts on this island and across the world to mischaracterise the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, the actions with regard to Red Hat show what the movement is all about: at its heart, it is a peace, justice and solidarity movement. <BR /> <BR />In the face of GAA upper management wanting to put their heads in the sand in the hope that they could get away with hosting that company, activists, importantly, got organised online and out in the street outside places like Casement Park in my constituency.”
“In our society, we need to have art for the masses, not just for the ruling classes.”
“The Assembly needs to protect people from money-grabbing executives and advocate proper public regulation of dynamic pricing to limit the power of money-driven scam artists. <BR /> <BR />Class is at the heart of it all. Those who have wealth or wealthy families can afford to pay inflated ticket prices. Those who cannot have to do without, but they are the same people who have to grapple with all the other problems of working-class life: long waiting lists, the mental health crisis and so on and so forth. Class runs really, really deep in the arts. Róisín Lanigan stated in 'The Irish Times' at the weekend that half of the nominees for the BRIT Awards, the Mercury Prize and the BAFTAs were privately educated, yet only 6% of the total population of Britain went to private school. Class is everywhere, and class runs deep.”
“Regular people are priced out of experiencing their favourite artists and going to their favourite gigs. <BR /> <BR />Big corporations set the prices, control the algorithms and pocket the difference. It is not just ticketing platforms that do it. Dynamic pricing does not just start and end here. We have heard of pubs discovering that they can charge more for drinks later at night and at weekends. Some shops have installed digital labels on essentials so that prices can be changed on a notion. What a disgraceful state of play at the minute. <BR /> <BR />Access to arts, goods and services should not be left to the whim of the market. People are being fleeced for trying to survive and for trying to enjoy themselves. That is why it is important to discuss this matter today.”
“For years, it has been monopolising the live music market and hiking up prices with hidden fees and costs. It recruited professional scalpers to cheat the system in order to resell tickets at eye-watering prices. In that way, it can get a second cut when the tickets are resold. <BR /> <BR />The problem goes way beyond dynamic pricing. The growth of streaming services offers another way to rip off artists while making billions. Platforms such as Spotify keep costs low by paying artists pennies while they share an 85% cut of the profits with big-time labels. They pay $0·000173 per stream to artists, which is a tiny and shocking figure. The music industry is riddled with bloated corporate middlemen whose only purpose is to leech off those with actual talent. It is not about supply and demand; it is about greed.”
“I declare an interest as someone who tries to purchase music tickets when I can. Unfortunately, like the artists in front of me, I am forced to use Ticketmaster. For years, Ticketmaster has acted as a parasitic middle man, fleecing artists and fans alike while contributing absolutely nothing to the music industry. Dynamic pricing experts expect music fans to pay, as we have heard, hundreds of pounds in ticket premiums. The executives line their pockets with cuts of up to 30% from that ticket pricing. <BR /> <BR />The Ticketmaster boss, Michael Rapino, was named as the fifth highest-paid American CEO in 2022. He has profited off the backs of those who see almost none of the money. That foul system rips joy out of the arts and rips people off at the same time. Ticketmaster is not new to scalping customers.”
“There is a growing call for a 1% tax on the wealthiest 1% in Britain to bring in £25 billion to plug the gap in public services. Did you or your officials raise such a point when you met the Treasury last week?”
“The truth is, Minister, that you buckled under Keir Starmer. You could have stood strong against him, but you failed to do that. You also failed to listen to the hundreds of thousands of people who will be impacted by that decision. Minister, what work have you, your officials and your Department carried out to work out the number of excess winter deaths that will occur as a result of that decision? Make no mistake, that will be the result of it.”
“Stormont's decision on means testing means that hundreds of thousands of people will lose out. What work have the Minister and his officials completed in order to recognise the benefits of the universality of public services and of public supports such as the winter fuel payment?”
“Thank you, First Minister. I join you in remembering those who have been killed by partners or ex-partners. Intimidation points are still not awarded to women who are harassed by current or ex-partners. I am keen to hear how the strategy will work in respect of that problem. <BR /> <BR />The £3 million does not seem a lot, given the scale of the problem and the fact that it is endemic in our society. What financial support will be given to support women who want to leave abusive partners but are economically trapped?”
“I appreciate the Member giving way. I agree with her on the need to keep good pressure on the Treasury. Will she urge the Finance Minister to put pressure on the Irish Government, who have just come into £13 billion as a result of Apple's non-payment of tax? Does she think that that would go some way towards covering some of the gaps that we have in our public services?”
“— we will just see how things have changed.”
“<BR /> <BR />Come next month, when Sinn Féin, the DUP and Alliance sign off lightly on a new austerity Budget and proceed with the cuts as before —”
“<BR /> <BR />I would invite them to tell that to the workers and the patients in our health service, to those on the housing waiting list, to the parents who cannot afford childcare, to the pupils and teachers who, disgracefully, have to fundraise for classroom supplies and to the pensioners who cannot heat their homes thanks to the Government's cuts. However, we should make absolutely no mistake about it: the parties that bemoan the economic policies of Westminster are preparing for more of the same. The Executive parties that implemented the cruel and punishing policies of the Tories for years are now preparing to roll over for Keir Starmer's right-wing Labour party as they promise more years of hardship.”
“Was it even the many people sleeping rough on our streets or the homeless families whose lives are put on hold and devastated because they do not have a place to call home? <BR /> <BR />People watching may have thought that those things inspired the change of heart, but they would be mistaken. When you look at the motion in the face of all the suffering that we see in our communities — I mentioned some of it — and in our public services, you see that the Alliance Party motion tells us that the place where the cuts are most sharply felt just so happens to be the Department run by their party leader. If they are seriously telling us that the police are suffering the worst of Stormont's cuts, I would respectfully invite them to think and look at that point again.”
“Every bad decision, every cut and every attack on public services by the Tories was, effectively, quietly agreed to by Sinn Féin and the DUP, and by the Alliance Party as well. If members of the public are following the debate today, they might reasonably ask what has caused the change of heart. Was it the people lying in hospital corridors or languishing on a health waiting list? Was it the children whose education is stymied by the under-resourcing of our schools or the special educational needs pupils and their families, referred to earlier, denied a school place in the first instance? Was it the fact that so many poorly paid public-sector workers are struggling to make ends meet?”
“The chronic underfunding of our schools is not a new problem. This is not the first time that we have discussed the Government's failure to invest in housing, infrastructure or protecting our environment. What is new is that, after some 15 years of implementing austerity on behalf of the British Government, some parties here have suddenly changed tack.”
“Thanks, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I apologise for not being in earlier. I had a meeting to attend. <BR /> <BR />The fact that there is a deep crisis in our health and social care system is news to no one.”
“Minister, there is a lot of hand-wringing this morning, but you and your Executive colleagues are complicit in the decision. You made the decision to cut winter fuel payments. There was no gun to your head. You could have said no, but you buckled shamefully. What assessment have you and your Department made of the excess deaths that will definitely come this winter as a result of that brutal decision?”
“<BR /> <BR />I will also not vote for any motion that commits more resources to a force that continues to fire plastic bullets at working-class children, be they in Sandy Row, the Ormeau, the Falls or the Shankill. Again, there is nothing from the party next to me when it comes to protecting those children and young people. <BR /> <BR />The PSNI has serious problems, but resourcing is nowhere near the worst of them. It has problems with misogyny, racism, sectarianism, state violence and the heavy policing of working-class communities. Instead of committing more resources to the police, we should commit them to improving the lives of oppressed people who find themselves in an inescapable cycle of crime thanks to the policies of this Executive and previous and current Westminster Governments.”
“Well, it depends what the problem is. The Member needs to clarify his example. <BR /> <BR />It is funny that the Member's party always talks about protecting children, often under the guise of undermining relationships and sexuality education (RSE), but when it comes to stopping and searching and harassing young people and the police's use of powers on young people, there is, unsurprisingly, not a word. <BR /> <BR />To continue, one search uncovered a mobile phone and two a small quantity of drugs. When it comes to investigating the most serious crimes, such as murder by the state and its paramilitary proxies, the PSNI has been to the fore in denying families justice and covering up Troubles-related crimes that were carried out by its predecessor organisation.”
“Last year, we heard that 27 children were strip-searched in 2021. For those who do not know what that entails, those children were arrested and asked to remove their clothes by the police, with just one child being accompanied by an appropriate adult. What was found as a result of those blatant abuses of children's rights? In 24 of 27 cases, nothing, zero, zilch.”
“Amnesty International, one of the world's leading human-rights organisations, tells us that people from ethnic minority communities are almost twice as likely to be stopped and searched by the PSNI. Think about that for a second: twice as likely. In 2022, Amnesty International reported that Irish Travellers were the ethnic group most targeted for stop-and-search. In 2021, journalists from "The Detail" revealed that, over a five-year period, the PSNI stopped and searched twice as many Catholics as it did working-class people from a Protestant background. That is the two-tier policing that is worth talking about, but sure throw more money at the problem anyway. <BR /> <BR />Not only does the PSNI risk the safety of young people through the use of child informants, it continues the horrendous practice of strip-searching children.”
“It is a police force that is rife with misogyny, with one report citing widespread misconduct, including sexual predation, misogyny, domestic abuse and the use of misogyny in social media groups. The same PSNI has actively discriminated against black and ethnic minority communities and attempted to criminalise the Black Lives Matter movement. It is the same institutionally racist police force that reports migrants who are victims of crimes, including domestic abuse, to the Home Office. <BR /> <BR />It refused to act appropriately on racist violence, allowing far-right thugs to rampage in south Belfast, and then had the gall to tell us that loyalist paramilitaries, under the guise of community leaders, have a role to play in stopping racism.”
“It is because the Government feel that it is easier and cheaper to police working-class communities than to deal with the social ills that they face. In communities where one in five children lives in poverty, it is easier for the PSNI to stop and search people and to intimidate, harass and police them than it is for the Government to grasp why it has to be this way. Poverty, lack of opportunity, alienation and crime are not inevitable, but throwing more resources at the police is definitely not the answer. That is why I will not be supporting the motion. <BR /> <BR />The problem goes much deeper. If we are talking about additional resources, we should ask what those resources are for and who exactly will be policed as a result. If we look at the record of the PSNI, we will have our answer.”